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Area is a quantity expressing the two-dimensional size of a defined part of a surface, typically a region bounded by a closed curve. The term surface area refers to the total area of the exposed surface of a 3-dimensional solid, such as the sum of the areas of the exposed sides of a polyhedron. Area is an important invariant in the differential geometry of surfaces.
Contents |
Units for measuring area, with exact conversions, include:
| Shape | Formula | Variables |
|---|---|---|
| Regular triangle (equilateral triangle) | ![]() |
s is the length of one side of the triangle. |
| Triangle | ![]() |
s is half the perimeter, a, b and c are the length of each side. |
| Triangle | ![]() |
a and b are any two sides, and C is the angle between them. |
| Triangle | ![]() |
b and h are the base and altitude (measured perpendicular to the base), respectively. |
| Square | ![]() |
s is the length of one side of the square. |
| Rectangle | ![]() |
l and w are the lengths of the rectangle's sides (length and width). |
| Rhombus | ![]() |
a and b are the lengths of the two diagonals of the rhombus. |
| Parallelogram | ![]() |
b is the length of the base and h is the perpendicular height. |
| Trapezoid | ![]() |
a and b are the parallel sides and h the distance (height) between the parallels. |
| Regular hexagon | ![]() |
s is the length of one side of the hexagon. |
| Regular octagon | ![]() |
s is the length of one side of the octagon. |
| Regular polygon | ![]() |
s is the sidelength and n is the number of sides. |
![]() |
a is the apothem, or the radius of an inscribed circle in the polygon, and p is the perimeter of the polygon. | |
| Circle | ![]() |
r is the radius and d the diameter. |
| Circular sector | ![]() |
r and θ are the radius and angle (in radians), respectively. |
| Ellipse | ![]() |
a and b are the semi-major and semi-minor axes, respectively. |
| Total surface area of a Cylinder | ![]() |
r and h are the radius and height, respectively. |
| Lateral surface area of a cylinder | ![]() |
r and h are the radius and height, respectively. |
| Total surface area of a Cone | ![]() |
r and l are the radius and slant height, respectively. |
| Lateral surface area of a cone | ![]() |
r and l are the radius and slant height, respectively. |
| Total surface area of a Sphere | ![]() |
r and d are the radius and diameter, respectively. |
| Total surface area of an ellipsoid | See the article. | |
| Square to circular area conversion | ![]() |
A is the area of the square in square units. |
| Circular to square area conversion | ![]() |
C is the area of the circle in circular units. |
The above calculations show how to find the area of many common shapes.
The area of irregular polygons can be calculated using the "Surveyor's formula".
(where B is any side, and h is the distance from the line on which B lies to the other vertex of the triangle). This formula can be used if the height h is known. If the lengths of the three sides are known then Heron's formula can be used:
(where a, b, c are the sides of the triangle, and
is half of its perimeter) If an angle and its two included sides are given, then area=absinC where C is the given angle and a and b are its included sides. If the triangle is graphed on a coordinate plane, a matrix can be used and is simplified to the absolute value of (x1y2+ x2y3+ x3y1 - x2y1- x3y2- x1y3) all divided by 2. This formula is also known as the shoelace formula and is an easy way to solve for the area of a coordinate triangle by substituting the 3 points, (x1,y1) (x2,y2) (x3,y 3). The shoelace formula can also be used to find the areas of other polygons when their vertices are known. Another approach for a coordinate triangle is to use Infinitesimal calculus to find the area.
, where i is the number of grid points inside the polygon and b is the number of boundary points. This result is known as Pick's theorem.
.
with endpoints
is given by the line integrals
(see Green's theorem)

the length divided by height
, where r is the radius of the circular base, and h is the height. That can also be rewritten as πr2 + πrl where r is the radius and l is the slant height of the cone. πr2 is the base area while πrl is the lateral surface area of the cone.The general formula for the surface area of the graph of a continuously differentiable function z = f(x,y), where
and D is a region in the xy-plane with the smooth boundary:

Even more general formula for the area of the graph of a parametric surface in the vector form
where
is a continuously differentiable vector function of
:

Given a wire contour, the surface of least area spanning ("filling") it is a minimal surface. Familiar examples include soap bubbles.
The question of the filling area of the Riemannian circle remains open.
| Look up area in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |